February 22, 2007

Government Support for Assistive Tech Falling

The need for assistive technology limits one's ability to make a living, and may eliminate it.

Or, you may find yourself at a Catch-22. You don't have money, you can get money if you have assistive technology, but you don't have money.

This is a good job for government, but governments have other priorities.

A recent UN Survey showed that only half the world's governments had made progress, over the last 10 years, in meeting 22 key goals for assistive technology. Even in those countries that have made progress, as Inclusive Technologies notes, progress has been piecemeal.

This is part of a long-running political kabuki, as the authors know.
To make the total numbers look better, Republicans deliberately cut
programs Democrats favor, and vice versa, knowing that the other party
will restore those cuts and can then be blamed for the increased
deficits.

But this is a sick, sick game. It creates uncertainty for people who
need help. It's cynical in the extreme, no matter who is doing it. More
important, it hurts the development of assistive technologies, since so
much of it depends on government funding, both for research and to pay
for the results of the research.

People who need help, or who have relatives who need help, should think
seriously about whether they should support politicians who play such
games with their lives.

Comments

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